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Swear Words In Public
I recently was at one of those huge movie theatres with 24 screens outside of Baltimore. And I walked by an older teenager whose t-shirt had some permutation of the word “FUCK” something or other on it in bold letters. It’s the kind of thing I don’t see every day, but I see it often enough that it annoys me.
The other culprit I have been seeing are bumper stickers that say “FUCK BUSH” or something similar. They don’t even opt for the slightly more sly misspelling “BUCK FUSH” any more.
When did it become okay for people to display swear words in public? Seems like it must have happened in the course of the last five years or something. Am I the only one who still doesn’t think it’s okay to do it?
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August 3rd, 2006 at 3:48 pm
FCUK stands for “French Connection UK”, fwiw (pronounced “phew!”)
August 3rd, 2006 at 3:57 pm
Yeah I know that, but that’s not what I saw or was referring to above!
August 3rd, 2006 at 4:31 pm
Swear words in general don’t bother me. I never really understood why using them was such a big deal anyway. Making them taboo actually compels me to want to use them more. I remember one day some time ago I was reading an article about how Oprah was on this campaign to encourage people to stop using swear words - she believed that we could use other more “socially appropriate” words to convey the same meaning. That may be true, but why? Do we need any more encouragement of censorship or control (especially from the likes of Oprah)? Aren’t swear words covered by the first amendment?
August 3rd, 2006 at 4:48 pm
controlling what we say and how we say it is a function of the technocracy. if we can`t express ourselves in certain ways we are controlled in those emotions. when it comes to swearing we are being controlled regarding anger and frustration. i find that the casual introduction of an expletive into presentations allows my clients to relax. they realise that i am one of them and the healing begins. i don`t start off with a string of this and that but the eventual word does the job.
mind control exists as a process we all inflict on ourselves. the heavy lifting has already been done.
August 3rd, 2006 at 4:51 pm
and the emerging “fcuk” and other things is an emerging push back by the growing awareness by culture that there is chioce. one just has to visit t-shirt hell to see some of this at work. some have had enough.
August 3rd, 2006 at 5:15 pm
I’ve noticed that teens & college students are wearing all sorts of interesting comments on their T-shirts that in some ways show there state of mind…
Mrs. Ashton Kutcher
Boy Toy
Pissed Off
Excuse, but do I look like someone who cares?
Do Not Disturb
& so forth
I just can’t imagine wearing these kind of T-shirts out in public. I would feel embarrassed.
August 3rd, 2006 at 5:31 pm
i could argue that one either way. on the one hand, people being offended by words usually correlates with a focus on the more superficial aspects of thought, which can lead to them quickly closing their minds to apprehending the meaning of whatever is presented to them, merely because of some unconscious, automatic aversion to how it’s dressed up.
on the other hand, rampant obsenity also usually correlates with a general shallowness or lack of control. someone who’s like, “fuck this, fuck that,” etc. frequently doesn’t really have anything of value to say anyway.
obscenity doesn’t really seem to matter at all, except insofar as it provides insight into the mind of whomever is presenting it, reacting to it, or trying to control it.
August 3rd, 2006 at 6:00 pm
i’m with stupid
August 3rd, 2006 at 6:42 pm
On a side note, I also think that to some degree the disapproval of the use of swear words has to do with class differences - it touches on the issue of gentility. I agree that someone who constantly says “fuck this, fuck that” may just simply be vacuous, or, the use of such language may simply be a conscious act of resistance.
August 3rd, 2006 at 6:47 pm
I’m not saying I’m offended by swear words. I’m saying throwing them around in public is kind of lame, cause there are kids and people you don’t know. And it assumes a familiarity with them which you don’t have.
Would you go to your grandmother’s house wearing a shirt that said “FUCK YOU” in giant letters? If not, then how come you force other people’s grandmothers to see it? It’s one thing to go to a rock concert at a 21 and over bar wearing something like that but it’s another to go to a mall…
I really don’t see it as being about censorship or controlling emotion or superficiality of thought or gentility. It’s about respect for other people, and for yourself as well, I think.
August 3rd, 2006 at 7:19 pm
Yeah - I agree with what you say Tim about respect and all. And if someone randomly came up to me and said “fuck you” I have to admit, I would be bothered by it. It’s kind of invasive. But I also think that using words such as “fuck” is more than just an obscene or disrespectful expression. Swear words are often a way for certain groups of people to be rebellious and may, in certain cases run along class lines. And the idea of respecting other people is probably one way in which the phrase “fuck you” is the antithesis of respecting others (or, in some people’s eyes, one’s self).
August 3rd, 2006 at 10:32 pm
I think it quickly draws a line between the “free thinkers” and the people who think “free thinking” is always cool.
August 4th, 2006 at 4:39 am
The impact is negatively effected. Kinda like watching a version of Psycho where you see the knife actually go into Janet Leigh in the shower.
August 4th, 2006 at 10:43 am
To me, it brings to mind prose vs. poetry. Prose might be simpler, more convenient, and perhaps more straightforward… but ultimately cannot delve as far into the truth as poetry can.
While swear words can certainly be used in a poetic fashion, the examples you describe on the shirts seem to me a sad retreat to blatant prose. Is it done to be cool? to be poetic? To get us discussing it? Sadly, I doubt it.
Seems to me a step toward a simple explanation of things, just like Mel Gibson blaming the Jews for starting *all* wars in history. F— Bush, sure… but the problem doesn’t stop there.
August 4th, 2006 at 10:47 am
….the thing that sucks about swearing…………..first i have to tell you that in certain situations i have “a mouth like a truck driver” to use a cliched phrase of my elderly/and or dearly departed female relatives………..but i can switch it off when appropriate……..to me,swearing is sort of an adolescent response………also,some people are poorly educated,and they don’t know how to make a strong statement without using the word fuck……..maybe people swear more now because it gives them the illusion of being free……….have you read “the decline of the west” by spengler ?
…………..
August 4th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
Words are words… there are accepted cultural definitions but when it comes to being offended by the use of one word over the other it seems a bit absurd to me. I could understand being offended if the kid came up to you and said “hey Fuck you mister!” i’d get a laugh out of it if some kid did that to me… A word is a word as i said before, it’s only offensive when we acknowlege that it is.
August 4th, 2006 at 2:42 pm
By that logic, you could say that “actions are actions” and to be offended by one action over another action (such as rape, murder, etc) is absurd. Words are not just words. They are actions. They are inextricably linked.
Nevermind that I didn’t say I was offended by people swearing in public. I just think it’s lame. I swear all the time myself, but I know when to hold em and when to fold em
August 4th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
I agree about the respect thing. You can say a word is just a word, and it is, on a surface level, but we all know that different words affect people differently, in general. An ‘anything goes’ mentality has its place, ie: in the creative process, and socially to an extent, among friends. But convention and limitations have their place too, ie: in public, where there are, like Tim said, kids, and grandmothers, and fellow human beings! What’s wrong with having certain standards for how we conduct ourselves in society? Words are more powerful than a lot of people realize, and these kids with these t-shirts and what not, show a lack of recognition of or respect for the power of language.
Words aren’t created equal, and one word isn’t necessarily as good as another for a given specific purpose. And that’s the thing to wonder about - the purpose. What’s the motivation behind the use of a particular word or phrase? Is ‘FUCK BUSH’ really going to best accomplish what it’s intended to accomplish? Is it going to convey the message you wish to communicate, effectively? Do you even know what you’re trying to accomplish or communicate, dude with the FUCK BUSH bumber sticker?
August 4th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Isn’t a lot of the confusion based around the Meaning(less)ness of the word?
“you’re a bitch”
“you’re an asshole”
those equate with saying you think whoever has negative qualities. insulting their personality/actions.
but, with “fuck you”
If you’re not saying you WANT to fuck this person, but instead damning them.
What does FUCK mean in negative terms, anyway?
Maybe that’s why some people use it so often? Over the ages it’s been built up as a grand insult, is it because it’s more vague than any of the others? You’re challenging someone to respond to an ambiguous statement. Giving you the perception of power? Like how jesus must’ve felt. hah
August 4th, 2006 at 4:14 pm
I was just out, sitting in traffic and what should drive by but a big van with large letters across the side reading:
FUKENTEES.
Honestly I thought it was rather funny.
August 4th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
I beieve the original question was, “When did it become acceptable to use swear words in public?”
Answer: It has never been acceptable. Just because people are wearing obscene shirts in public doesn’t mean that it is legal, let alone acceptable. It’s just that in some areas of the nation, no one really cares. But in high schools and areas where people blow whistles on such shenanigans, it’s a BIG deal.
As for swearing in general, I find it interesting that the edgy comics of the late 60s and early 70s– Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Richard Pryor — were the ones who pushed the envelope the most when it came to swearing in the media. The black comics of the chitlin’ circuit ALWAYS swore, a point Chris Rock makes in the excellent documentary “The Aristocrats”, but the white comics kept the “blue” material for after hours… that is, until people like Bruce and Carlin literally challenged the court system with their routines.
By the time gangsta rap made every word under the sun acceptable to use in public discourse, people’s attitudes towards swearing general SEEMED to have gotten more liberal, but in reality it is probably the same number of people for it as there were in the late ’60s… only difference is, people are sick and tired of testing the First Amendment because it (usually) wins out over anything.
Peope’s attitudes towards swearing are almost always compatible with their attitudes towards smoking. This is just my opinion, not a fact. This is also in the wake of Santa Monica’s “no smoking anywhere” ordinance. The people of Santa Monica, I suppose, do have a right to make a perfectly legal activity illegal in their city, but I wonder how many Santa Monica-based smokers will be sneaking into neighboring cities to get their fix. Likewise, how many paragons of virtue smile in public while they curse up a blue streak behind closed doors?
Finally, isn’t it ironic that religious right-wingers don’t care that Bush and Cheney are always caught swearing on or off the microphone? You’d think it would make them angry, but I guess since he’s Republican, he gets a free pass.
What’s my point? I seem to have gotten lost.
Godammit…
August 4th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
I feel a connection between this discussion and what you were saying about the underlying structures of language as you perceived directly in your Golden State recently. But I can’t quite seem to formulate it into words! …which I suppose is appropriate.
I guess I just wonder, when I’m walking down the street and I see the words “Fuck You!” on some dude’s shirt, or overhear a conversation where every other word is fuck’n this and fuck’n that, how is that affecting me on a deeper level? What’s the underlying meaning there? I think the problem is that there is no meaning there, when it’s used in such a pointless fashion. The lack of meaning or substance or purpose makes it just noise pollution, or the visual or conceptual equivilent.
It seems many, many words are being stripped of their meaning and power through overuse and misuse. The mental pollution is increasing, and it’s like poison for my soul. It’s like eating junk food. Empty calories. And the result of that is not just a lack of nutrition; it’s bad for you.
Of course, like with food, we all have our individual sensitivities. But when language gets to the level of pure, empty, meaningless junk, I think there’s a negative affect on everyone whether they realize it or not. And when it’s out in everyone’s faces, in public, where the more sensitive can’t avoid it, that ain’t cool.
August 4th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
James:
Yeah, that’s a good point - as is the one you made about wearing shirts like that in schools, etc.
Allison:
Absolutely. I feel it too. Part of it has to do with intentionality - you get what you intend to get. But I can’t quite formulate it quite either.